Vincent Belorgey[2] (born July 31, 1975), known professionally as Kavinsky, is a French musician, producer and DJ.[3][4] His production style is very reminiscent of the electropop film soundtracks of the 1980s.[5] Kavinsky claimed that his music is inspired by thousands of movies he watched as a young boy and that he has cherry-picked the best parts from them, consolidating them into one concept.[6] Kavinsky has been compared to many similar French house artists including Daft Punk and Danger. He achieved greater mainstream recognition after his song "Nightcall" was featured in the 2011 film Drive. His debut studio album, OutRun, was released in 2013.

Biography

Kavinsky in 2014

After many years as an actor, Kavinsky's musical career started in 2005 after being inspired by his close friends Jackson Fourgeaud and Quentin Dupieux, the latter director also including Kavinsky's music in his film Steak. During this period Kavinsky produced his first single "Testarossa Autodrive" which was inspired by the Testarossa model of Ferrari (one of which Vincent drives in real life).[6] Kavinsky presented the single to Quentin, who in turn presented it to a record label he had access to because of his filming career, and Kavinsky signed with Record Makers.[7][8]

The SebastiAn remix of "Testarossa Autodrive" off the 1986 EP is featured in the video games Grand Theft Auto IV and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. Kavinsky's single "Nightcall" was featured in the opening credits of the film Drive, and became a major hit soon after.[9]

In December 2012 he released "ProtoVision" and on 25 February 2013 released the studio album OutRun.[11][12] After a brief hiatus lasting for 9 months, Kavinsky reappeared with the single "Sovereign", released in November 2014; and has since as of 2018 released no new singles to date.

Character history

Kavinsky is a character made by Vincent Belorgey that has a striking resemblance to Vincent himself but the backstory does not follow anything in Belorgey's history. Kavinsky's story is that after crashing his Testarossa in 1986, he reappeared as a zombie in 2006 to make his own electronic music.[7] Kavinsky's songs help tell his story; Vincent claims in an interview, "'Night Call' is just about the zombie guy [who] goes to his girlfriend's house and says okay I'm not the same, we need to talk", referring to Kavinsky going back to find his girlfriend after the crash who has already moved on with her life.[8]

Equipment

In interview, Kavinsky stated that the entirety of Teddy Boy was written and recorded on a Yamaha DX7, which was famous and notable for the synth-pop sound of the 1980s.[13] Kavinsky originally started making music on an old Apple computer given to him by his friend Mr. Oizo.[8]